Local Officials Worry About Cuts To Programs

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to cut welfare and health care programs for low income families and children.

It's all a part of his plan to help close the state's growing $21 billion deficit.

Officials for the CALWorks and Healthy Families Programs said if the state cuts those programs, it would be a historic move as California would be the only state without a safety net program for the unemployed and poor.

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Citizens group protests against Governor Jindal

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - "Enough is enough," was a common chant hurled by protestors through the air and aimed at Governor Bobby Jindal. Members of the Concerned Citizens Coalition marched against Governor Bobby Jindal's decision and handling of Louisiana's portion of federal stimulus funds.

"It's important that we as a community unite to send a message to Governor Jindal that Louisianans are tired of being on the bottom of the totem poll in just about every indicator," said Shacara E. Lewis, State Director for Every Child Matters in Louisiana and Coalition organizer.

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A Supreme Sotomayor: How My Country Has Caught Up to Me, by Maria Hinojosa

What President Obama has done for men of color, Sonia Sotomayor will do for Puerto Rican women. She will forever and profoundly change the image of what a "Puerto Rican girl" really is.

I myself was used to being the "first" – the first Latina hired at NPR in Washington, DC; the first Latina correspondent for CNN; the first Latina anchor and correspondent for PBS. The new paradigm is that we are now going beyond "firsts." Just look at Sotomayor – she’s got that wavy-hair-with-the-big-earrings thing. She wears bright colors. She smiles broadly and she means it! She could be me! My 11-year-old daughter sees her on TV and remarks that Sotomayor looks "a lot like Mami’s friends."

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Cutting Social Services to Immigrants Hurts Us All

On Immigrant Day an older Vietnamese man told a San Jose assembly member through his translator: “When you see the Governor, ask him one thing. Can he live off $600 a month? Because that’s what I do. But I can’t do it for less. Please don’t make more cuts.”

These cuts indeed hurt us all, and are reflected in homeless rates and in emergency room costs. They consistently target law-abiding newcomers who have paid into our social security and Medicare systems, have fought in our wars, have built our homes, grown our food, and cared for our children and seniors. We all need to share in the solution to our budget crisis but we must take our immigrant seniors, disabled, and working families out of the crosshairs.

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Recession uproots families, takes toll on children

Like the Great Depression, this economic downturn is wrenching lives out of shape.

But unlike 90 years ago, hunger isn't the main problem, and neither is the kind of homelessness that sent thousands of middle-class Americans into tent cities during the Depression. This time the toll is far less obvious: children are grappling with more stress at home, and low-income families, already highly mobile, are being forced to pull up stakes and move more often.

"It's huge," said Ana Leon, the school counselor at Wilton Manors Elementary in Ft. Lauderdale, who said mobility had increased significantly this year at her 600-student, mostly low-income school.

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Few retail clinics found serving poor

CHICAGO | Walk-in retail clinics in grocery and drugstore chains can help the uninsured find health care, proponents say. But a new study suggests that most retail clinics aren't in the poorest neighborhoods.

"Many people have promoted retail clinics as a cure for access to care for the underserved," said Dr. Ateev Mehrotra of the University of Pittsburgh, who studies retail clinics but wasn't involved in the new research. "These findings show that's unlikely to happen."

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Ex-Gang Members Work Green Jobs

LOS ANGELES, California (May 21) -- Rudolpho Marquez, Richard Reyes and Cesar Cruz make for a most unlikely car pool. They are all former gang rivals who have spent hard time in prison. But they've put the past behind them for common goals: jobs and their families.

Reyes, who spent the last decade in and out of prison for an array of drug offenses. "It don't matter where you come from, what background you come from. We are all humans, and we should learn to live together."

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At-Risk Need a Mix of Good Teachers, Social Service Help

Karen Kaldenbach, an 18-year-old high school senior in Arlington County, remembers vividly what life was like when she was 11: "I saw Social Services almost as much as I saw my mother, who was always drunk. Her best friends, alcohol and money, were always there for her. She spent so much time with them, she couldn't raise my little sister and me. Social Services always came to talk to me at school. They asked questions about my family. My response? A lie, always."

We are in the midst of a national debate, its outcome uncertain, over what should be the emphasis of efforts to fix public schools. Some say the focus should be on improving teaching. Only in the classroom, they say, is there a chance to give students -- particularly those in poverty -- the tools they need to succeed. Others say teachers cannot reach those children until their family lives, shaken by parental joblessness or mental or physical illness, are straightened out by government action.
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Foreclosure Crisis Hits Poor Renters Hard: Evicted Families Have to Fight to Live Together

Last fall, Yolanda James and her three children were lost in their own city. After foreclosure had forced them from their South Los Angeles apartment, they ran into closed doors at every turn. Aid agencies offered referrals to other offices, but no relief, and neither the shelter system nor the city's high-priced housing market had room for them. James burned through her welfare money to pay for motel rooms and later resorted to sleeping with her children in their car.

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Obama Picks Sotomayor, Citing Intellect

WASHINGTON — President Obama announced on Tuesday that he will nominate the federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, choosing a daughter of Puerto Rican parents raised in Bronx public housing projects to become the nation’s first Hispanic justice.

Judge Sotomayor, who stood next to the president during the announcement, was described by Mr. Obama as “an inspiring woman who I am confident will make a great justice.”

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NM cutting cash benefits for low-income disabled

(AP) - State officials say budget constraints are behind plans to cut cash payments to low-income disabled New Mexicans by about a third, beginning in July.

Average monthly benefits will drop to $170 -- down from the current average payment of $266 a month. General assistance mainly goes to adults with temporary disabilities unable to work and to those with long-term disabilities while they apply for federally financed Supplemental Security Income.
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It's the Poor Who Pay More

The writer James Baldwin said, "Anyone who has struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor."

Recessions have an awful way of proving this true.

These days "you have to be rich to be poor," Post staff writer Deneen L. Brown wrote in a fascinating piece for the Style section.

When you are poor (and according to the Census Bureau, more than 37 million Americans live below the poverty line), you pay more in money, time, exhaustion and hassle, Brown so sadly illustrates in her story in which she details the "economics of poverty." Here are a few of the basics discussed in the article:

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Boy Scouts Train to Fight Immigrants: Is there a Merit Badge for that?

Today, the New York Times is running a story featuring a new twist on the tradition of Boy Scouts. The Explorer program, which began 60 years ago, is now training Scouts as young as 14 to “confront terrorism, illegal immigration and border violence”. Does anybody else find this disturbing?

At a time when President Obama is calling us all to service, while facing an economic crisis that is threatening every one of our communities, we need to be training our young people to help their communities — not grab guns and junior military garb to play scare tactics along the border. We need sensible, professional border security, not kids who want to play a real-life version of G.I. Joe.

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1, 800 Prisoners in Arizona Jails on Hunger Strike: Sheriff Retaliates with County wide lock down.

I want to make sure you know about the 1,800 prisoners in Arizona jails that have been hunger striking to protest food and other conditions under Sheriff Arpaio there. They've been intermittently striking for the past two weeks to demand better food.

The Sheriff retaliated yesterday placing the majority of the county jails on lock down and denying all prisoners their phone calls and visitations.

The Sheriff has been coming under fire for his actions under the federal 287g program that enables local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws. Arpaio has used this program to deputize hundreds of volunteer posse members, including known white supremacists, and set up ski masked check-points and round ups in Latino and indigenous communities. 5,000 people marched in February to demand that former Arizona Governor and now Dept of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano end Arpaio's 287g program.

The Puente movement in Phoenix is rallying around the prisoners and attempting to break the media silence around this incredible collective action.

There will be more information coming, but right now I just wanted to spread the word.

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Recession Continues to Curb Blacks' Dream of Home Ownership

In the past two decades, the U.S. saw rapid gains in Black home ownership, hailed as a tool for narrowing the racial gap and for passing on one’s family legacy.

But those gains took a severe hit in the last two years amid the ongoing recession and foreclosure crisis, according to a report released this week by the Washington, D.C.—based Pew Hispanic Center

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The High Cost of Poverty: Why the Poor Pay More

You have to be rich to be poor.

That's what some people who have never lived below the poverty line don't understand.

Put it another way: The poorer you are, the more things cost. More in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, menace. This is a fact of life that reality television and magazines don't often explain.

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Track the Stimulus in your State

In an effort to continue to track the distribution of federal funds allocated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Equal Voice for America's Families Coalition will send out weekly updates about upcoming hearings, public actions, request for proposals, updates and resources regarding the distribution of stimulus dollars at the state level. Action Alerts will include information about the states in Marguerite Casey Foundation's grantmaking regions: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas and Washington.

If you would like to receive a weekly Action Alert, contact us here.

More Homeowners Getting Aid, but Demand Keeps Rising

In the two months since it launched, the Obama administration's foreclosure prevention plan has outperformed the government's previous attempts, offering more than 50,000 homeowners lower-cost mortgages.

Yet the $75 billion program, known as Making Home Affordable, has been implemented unevenly by lenders, leaving some homeowners frustrated and bewildered.

The demand from distressed borrowers has overwhelmed many lenders and nonprofit organizations, which have hired more staff to cope. And there is a growing concern about whether the plan can reach its goal of helping 4 million homeowners without tackling the issue of borrowers who owe more than their home is worth.

For Victims of Recession, Patchwork State Aid

“We have people at both ends of the spectrum,” Ms. Zedlewski said in an interview. “But we have far more people who get nothing than who get the whole package. A significant group remains outside the safety net.”

Nationwide, about two-thirds of people eligible for food stamps receive them. But just 21 percent of poor children get cash welfare; 30 percent of eligible households get subsidized housing; and 44 percent of the unemployed get jobless benefits.

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Obama: ‘Stars Are Aligned’ This Year for Health Care

President Obama on Wednesday declared that “the stars are aligned” to pass his health care agenda this year, with the legislation set to begin in the House of Representatives in July.

“We’ve got to get it done this year,” Mr. Obama said, standing on the South Lawn of the White House, surrounded by House Democratic leaders. “We’ve got to get it done this year, both in the House and Senate. We don’t have any excuses.”

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Census Officials Vow To Protect Confidentiality of 2010 Data

As of July 1, 2008, there are about 5.35 million people living in the Detroit metropolitan area. Of that figure, only 62 percent were counted in the 2000 census. In recent years, Detroit’s population of immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia has increased significantly.

Tack Yong Kim, publisher of the Michigan Korean Weekly, was upfront with census officials about the confidentiality of the data.

“In your slogan, it says ‘It’s Simple, It’s Important, It’s Safe,’” he said, referring to a census video presentation. “But my question is: Are we really safe, after all?”

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Immigration raid leaves damaging mark on Postville, Iowa

"Postville is a stain on our judicial system," said David Leopold, a vice president of the Washington-based American Immigration Lawyers Assn., who argued that the plant workers were unfairly coerced and deprived of adequate legal protections.

In Postville, many resent being in the spotlight. Yet they are frustrated that more hasn't been done to offset the unanticipated damage.
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At Project Homeless Connect, more demand for more help

"We saw 888 families in 2006 spending 27,558 nights in shelter,'' said LuAnn Schmaus, a spokeswoman for Hennepin County. "In 2008, we saw 1,251 families who stayed 47,531 nights. In other words, more families spending longer time in shelter.''

Shelters are at capacity or near capacity "almost every night now,'' she said.
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City making strides on affordable housing

Recognizing the dire need, HABC has been aggressively increasing housing opportunities to the extent allowed by budgetary limitations. Since January 2007 we have increased the supply of public housing and Section 8 by nearly 2100 units. Also, under the new stimulus package, HABC is poised to renovate an additional 187 long-term vacant public housing units. Furthermore, in accordance with Mayor Dixon's 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness, HABC has dedicated 500 vouchers to Housing First for the chronically homeless, as well as, 200 vouchers for the Ex-Offenders Program.
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Despite Stimulus Funds, States to Cut More Jobs

Eleven weeks after Congress settled on a stimulus package that provided $135 billion to limit layoffs in state governments, many states are finding that the funds are not enough and are moving to lay off thousands of public employees.

The state of Washington settled on a budget two weeks ago that will mean 1,000 layoffs at public colleges and several times that many in elementary and high schools.
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MALDEF launches petition for investigation by DOJ

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund has launched an online petition asking for signatures urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the death of Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala and bring federal charges against the defendants who were acquitted on most county charges Friday.

“There’s a strong federal interest in eradicating the bias that motivated the violence and a fed prosecution is definitely in the public interest,” MALDEF staff attorney Gladys Limon said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Two Shenandoah area teens were found not guilty of the most serious charges facing them in relation to the death of illegal Mexican immigrant Ramirez, 25, who died July 14, 2008, from injuries suffered in a beating two days earlier.

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STIMULUS WATCH: Jobs, but Not Where Needed Most

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The billions in transportation stimulus dollars that President Barack Obama promoted as a way to create jobs shortchange counties that need the work the most, an Associated Press analysis has found.

The AP's review of more than 5,500 planned transportation projects nationwide is the most complete picture available of where states plan to spend the first wave of highway money. It reveals that states are planning to spend 50 percent more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment than in communities with the highest. The Transportation Department said it will attempt to replicate the AP's analysis as it continues pressing states to dole out money fairly.
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Where can working Americans afford a home?

“Just because prices are falling, that doesn’t mean that we have seen an end to the problem of affordability, because for many people, particularly at the low end of the income spectrum, people are losing their jobs or their hours are being cut back,” says Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard’s Joint Center on Housing Studies.

“So it’s not just the cost of housing, whether to purchase or rent, but it is also people’s ability to pay,” he adds. “And in this economic situation we’re in, that’s becoming much more problematic.”

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Ready or Not, Katrina Victims Lose Temporary Housing

“A lot of people are involved in the process of making sure that no one falls through the cracks,” said Manuel Broussard, an agency spokesman in Louisiana. “Everyone’s been offered housing up to this point several times. And for various reasons, they have not accepted it.”

But the dozen temporary housing occupants interviewed for this story said they had received little if any attention from FEMA workers and were lucky to get a list of landlords, much less an offer of permanent housing.

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In Arizona, Immigrants Stage Hunger Strike to Protest Conditions in County Jails

Last Saturday PUENTE led a 6 mile-march to the Durango jail complex to denounce alleged abuse of immigrant women in the county jails. Sheriff Arpaio was the first to report that 43 women in the Estrella Jail had gone on a hunger strike to support the protesters. Citing security reasons, Arpaio had ordered all prisoners to be placed in lock-down during the march.

Reza said the protest was inspired by the cases of several women who reported intimidation and brutality by jail guards.

One of the cases is that of Maria del Carmen Garcia-Martinez whose arm was allegedly broken by jailers.

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Supreme Court Rules that Immigrants Have Rights, Too

Whatever one thinks of immigration policy in this country, it is not OK to remove the element of intent from a criminal statute that clearly requires it. And the broader attack on the constitutional rights of immigrants to move a broken Bush policy scheme puts everyone’s rights at risk.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appears to understand this as she has significantly tightened the requirements for bringing immigration prosecutions and turned the focus of those prosecutions on employers. Under new Department of Homeland Security guidelines, “ICE must prioritize the criminal prosecution of actual employers who knowingly hire illegal workers because such employers are not sufficiently punished or deterred by the arrest of their illegal work force.” And ICE must, “obtain indictments, criminal arrest or search warrants, or a commitment from a U.S. attorney’s office to prosecute the targeted employer, before arresting employees for civil immigration violations at a work site.”

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People in jail and out protest sheriff

About 20 people who oppose Arpaio's policies will fast until Friday at St. Mathews Church in Phoenix, Chavez said.

"It's not only the racial profiling that Arpaio's doing," he said. "It's mistreatment of inmates. Even though they are inmates, they are still people. He's serving horrible food -- food that's black and rotten."

Ethnic Media to Play Critical Role in 2010 Census

SAN FRANCISCO -- On April 1, 2010, less than a year from now, a snapshot of the whole population of the country will be taken. Whether you are a citizen, an immigrant, legal, illegal, homeless or an international student, if you are in the United States at that time, you will be counted.

How important is it to be in the snapshot? How do we get everybody in it? These questions were answered at a May 5 roundtable discussion at New America Media, where ethnic media met with government officials to discuss how to get the message out to those who are most likely to dodge the "snapshot" -- immigrants and minorities.

One reason that immigrants, especially the undocumented, may not want to be a part of the census is that they are afraid that their information will be used by government agencies against them

Education found to have effect on health

“It's what we see routinely,” he said. “Lack of education means less income sometimes, and that limits your access to health care, what food you eat and whether you can afford your medication.”

The findings were “frustrating” for Liz Keith, senior vice president for mission at Bon Secours St. Francis Health System.

“Health is more than just good medical care,” she said. “It's good living, access to education, building a safe, clean and engaged community. When you can see people's lives getting better, the negative health indicators will begin to retreat.”

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Miami-Dade students hold rallies, marches against community violence

'We're marching so we can show our neighborhood that the young and old can come together and make a difference,'' said Talija Harris, a fifth-grader who participated in a rally near her school last month. ``The violence needs to stop.''

An army of enthusiastic children from Edison Park Elementary School marched down the streets surrounding their school in Liberty City with calls to stop the violence that is plaguing youths in the area.

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Economic casualties pile into tent cities

"I was thinking, 'That was me at one point,' " he says of the revelers. "Now I'm thinking, 'Where am I going to sleep tonight? Where do I eat? Where do I shower?' "

The unemployed Detroit autoworker moved to Florida last year hoping he'd have better luck finding a job. He didn't, and he spent three months sleeping on sidewalks before landing in a tent city in Pinellas County, north of St. Petersburg, on Feb. 26.

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More Americans Losing Health Insurance Every Day

The rapid loss of health coverage demonstrates the fundamental instability of health insurance protections in our current system and the need for comprehensive health reform. As President Barack Obama asserted in a White House forum in March, “Health care reform is no longer just a moral imperative, it is a fiscal imperative… If we want to create jobs and rebuild our economy, then we must address the crushing cost of healthcare this year, in this administration.” The time to deliver quality, affordable health care coverage to our nation’s families is now. The American people cannot afford another missed opportunity.
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Arpaio Protesters Take to Streets Saturday

PHOENIX - Saturday, large crowds took to the streets to protest Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his controversial immigration policies. Several hundred people began marching at the Wells Fargo building in downtown Phoenix, and ended at Tent City.

Protest organizer Salvador Reza told FOX 10, "We have reports of people getting their arms broken, their jaws dislocated, intimidation everyday."
Watch the video and see more pictures here

Daddy's not going to jail

"We want to give struggling parents an opportunity to return to the workforce and ultimately reconnect with their children," said Smith. "If we just lock them up, no one wins-they can't pay child support from jail, and when they re-enter society, their record makes it tough to find a job. But if we can help them with vocational training and job training services, they're far more likely to be able to fulfill their obligations."
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However Modest, May Day Rally Showcases Immigrants' Reawakening

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Today's May Day rallies in favor of immigration reform may have been smaller than the historic mass demonstrations of 2006, but they carried an important political message.

They represent the reawakening of a pressure group: immigrants and their families.

It's a grassroots lobby that has lain mostly dormant for three years. In large part, immigrants were scared into political hibernation by the backlash against them that followed immigration reform's collapse in the 2007 Congress.

Since that defeat, immigrant communities have faced increased raids, deportations, and scrutiny by local law enforcement.

Now, encouraged perhaps by a more flexible White House stance on immigration, they're beginning to speak out again. They've heard Obama's vague promises to "move" on immigration reform this year, but haven’t seen any concrete results. Impatience is beginning to show.

"In 2006, we said si se puede (yes we can)," thundered one rally organizer onstage, trying to rile up the crowd here, just after a female singer in short shorts had sung a Venezuelan protest ballad, Casas de Cartón, or "Cardboard Houses."
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Supreme Court approves childcare tax deductions

Working parents will now be allowed to deduct their childcare expenses from their taxes, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday, upholding a Tel Aviv District Court decision.

Court vice president Eliezer Rivlin wrote the opinion for the expanded five-justice panel.

Rivlin wrote that childcare expenses were a necessary expenditure to allow parents to work and earn an income, and are a necessary result of natural parental responsibility for their children."

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College Board wants more help for illegal immigrants

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wading into the politically charged immigration debate, a group of colleges and universities is urging Congress to give illegal immigrants tuition aid and a path to citizenship in light of efforts in several states to block them.

The College Board, made up of 5,000 schools and best known for its SAT college admission tests, released a report Tuesday that cites a need for federal legislation that would open up in-state college tuition, financial aid and legal status to many illegal immigrants in the United States.
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May 2 & 3 - Walk for Respect Stop the Cruelty :

Join us and Zack De La Rocha this saturday as we protest Arpaio and 287g in Phoenix AZ.

Friday night will be Noche de Cultura, doors will open at 7pm 10 dollar donation.Saturday May 2nd is the march to Tent City

We will meet at 8:00 AM at 100 W. Washington at the Wells Fargo Tower where tax payers pay 675,000K/year for his rent in luxury office suites while vital programs are slashed.

We will march to the jails where his abusive continues of murder and mistreatment of innocent people continue even after losing his Jail accreditation several months ago.

Broken arms, dislocated jaws, vulgarities, intimidation, are part of the daily routine at Maricopa County Sheriffs Office detention facilities. Disregarding the evidence, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano seems to favor the prison model whereby detainees believed to be undocumented can be interrogated, and deported once local law enforcement brings them into jail. The human rights violations of members of this vulnerable population have been documented and testified about in the recent Congressional Hearing on the 287 (g) program overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.

Now, at the request of the victims who are out on an Immigration Stay of Deportation, while their case is being heard, on behalf of those brave women who smuggled a letter to be presented to Congress; we will walk from Sheriff Joe headquarters to Estrella, Durango, and Tent City jails. Puente representatives fear that Sheriff Arpaio will punish the prisoners by putting them in Lock Down, denying visitation rights, and taking away their recreation activities the day of the walk. We will not sit idly by while human rights abuse continues unabated at the hands of 287(g) trained deputies.

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